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Age-21

2 Roxwell Road, Shepherd's Bush

The Battle of Loos, fought by the British Army from 25th September, 1915 through to 13th October, was conducted along a six-and-a-half-mile front running north from the mining village of Loos on the outskirts of Lens in Northern France. It was the largest offensive carried out by the British so far in the war. The opening day involved an attack by six divisions, with others entering the fray as it progressed and it was part of a much wider offensive with the French launching their own attacks in Champagne and at Vimy. It was the first time that the British used gas during the war, despite their condemnation of the Germans for doing the same in April 1915. There were some encouraging results on the first day but no major breakthrough was achieved and in the successive days the offensive became mired in trench warfare. By mid-October the battle had petered out with the British having suffered over 60,000 casualties during its course.

15^th London (Civil Service Rifles) were in reserve on 25th September, 1915 as 6^th London and 7^th London led the attack of 140 Brigade against the great dumps of Fosse 11 and Fosse 12. With the exception of two platoons of “B” Company they were on-lookers to the day’s events. Soon after the attack started  No. 6 Platoon went forward carrying bombs. They started out 25 strong but only 3 of their number survived unhurt. No. 8 Platoon went to their rescue and they too had their casualties.